Note 1 — Chapter I · THE KING OF THE WOOD

Strictly speaking, nemus is a natural opening or glade in a forest. Thus Lucan says (Pharsal. i. 453 sq.) that the Druids inhabited “deep glades in sacred groves far from the haunts of men” (“nemora alta remotis incolitis lucis”), as the words are rendered by Haskins in his edition, who compares Propertius v. 9. 24, “lucus ubi umbroso fecerat orbe nemus.” But commonly nemus means no more than a wood or grove. See for example Lucan, Pharsal. iii. 396, “procumbunt nemora et spoliantur robora silvae.” At Nemi the sacred grove (lucus) formed part of the woodlands (nemus), as we learn from Cato, quoted by Priscian, Inst. iv. 21 (vol. i. p. 129, ed. M. Hertz), “lucum Dianium in nemore Aricino,” etc. As to the thick woods of Nemi in antiquity see Ovid, Fasti, iii. 263 sq.; id., Metam. xv. 485.